Harriet only smiled, but she blinked black lashes that the little touch of sympathy had suddenly made wet.  And presently when Bottomley was gone, and she about to follow him, she laid one hand on Pilgrim’s broad black alpaca shoulder, and said: 

“I had my own reasons, Pilgrim, you know.  Reasons that make it all seem—­right, to me!”

“Well, why wouldn’t you?” Pilgrim said, approvingly.  “You’d have been a very silly girl not to take him, and—­as I always tell the girls—­love’ll come fast enough afterwards!”

The words came back to Harriet, hours later, when the house was quiet, and when, comfortably wrapped in a loose silk robe, she was musing beside her fire.  Nina was asleep; to Ward, who was headachy and feverish, she had paid a late visit.  He had been sick enough, after the revel of Christmas Eve, to summon a doctor to-day; and was dozing restlessly now, under the effect of a sedative.  Madame Carter had not come down to dinner, and when Harriet had sent in a message, had asked to be excused from any calls, even from Nina and Miss Field, this evening.

Nina had chattered constantly during the meal.  Granny had had a terrible time with them all.  And Ward and Nina and “Royal”—­the name suddenly leaped between them again—­had been arrested for speeding.  And Daddy had threatened Nina with a boarding-school, and Granny had cried.

“Where is Mr. Blondin now, Nina?” Harriet had asked.

“Oh, he’s round!” Nina had said, airily.  “I suppose you put Daddy up to saying that I wasn’t to see so much of him!” she had added, with her worldly wise drawl.

“Not at all,” Harriet had said.

“Ladybird and I are planning a trip,” Nina had further confided.  “I shall be eighteen in February, you know, and we want to go round the world.  Would’nt it be wonderful to go with her, for she’s been about fifty times!”

“Wonderful!” Harriet had been obliged to concede.

“You know"-and Nina, in good spirits, had put her arm about Harriet as they left the table—­“you know, some day I’d love to do it with you!” she had said, soothingly.  “And some day we will, for I mean to travel a great deal.  But just now—­she spoke of it, you know.  And it would be such an unusual opportunity.  We’re going to Algiers—­and Athens—­Mr. Blondin is making out the list for us, and wouldn’t it be fun if he could go, too?  He’s afraid he can’t, but if he could—!”

“But, dearest child, what does your father think?”

“Father—­” Nina had shrugged regretfully.  “But I shall be of age!” she had reminded her companion.

“Yes, I know, dear, but Father’s ward for another three years, you know!”

“Why, Ladybird says”—­the girl had been ready, and had spoken with flushed cheeks—­“Ladybird says that in that case we’ll go anyway, and she’ll pay all expenses!  That’s the kind of friend she is!”

And Nina had flounced to a telephone, and had telephoned her friend in New York, laughing, coquetting, and murmuring for a blissful half hour.